Haryana government revises affordable housing policy

The Haryana government has decided to revise its Affordable Housing Policy, to provide housing for all in the state by 2022. Chief Minister Manohar Lal has approved the changes in the policy to provide cheaper houses to the people of small urban areas, especially in the old city boundaries of the state, an official release said. This will provide affordable houses to the general public near their work places, under the centre’s ‘Housing for All by 2022’ mission. In a statement issued on February 18, 2018, urban local bodies minister Kavita Jain said the state government has formulated an Affordable Housing Policy for old cities, within the jurisdiction of urban local bodies, to which the chief minister has accorded his approval. She said that although there was already a plan for setting up of sectors in urban areas by the Town and Country Planning Department, yet, there was no such plan for the old cities in urban areas. The 2013 policy was applicable only for residential sectors of urban areas. Therefore, the Urban Local Bodies Department was directed to formulate a new policy, the minister said. Jain said under the policy, the Urban Local Bodies Department would give approval to housing projects in old habitats of urban areas, from half acre to two-and-a-half acres and from two-and-a-half to five acres, on the basis of 250 and 275 floor area ratio, respectively. She said that the applicable site should be at least nine metres on road with the population density between 750 and 900 persons per acre and on six per cent area, business activities would be allowed to be conducted from 175 floor area ratio. In this policy, the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban) would be provided with houses of 30 metres category, on priority basis, Jain said. She said that the urban areas of the state had been divided into four zones. The Municipal Corporation (MC), Gurugram has been included in the Hyper-Potential Zone; MCs of Faridabad, Sonepat, Panipat, Panchkula and the Municipal Committee of Sohna into the High-Potential Zone. The MCs of Karnal, Hisar, Yamunanagar, Rohtak, and municipal committees of Bahadurgarh, Bawal, Rewari, Palwal and Municipality Hodal, Dharuhera and Gannaur are under the Medium- Potential Zone and other 13 Municipal Committees and 49 municipality areas have been included in Low-Potential Zone, the minister said.